Modern Management

Kristina B — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 21:27:00 -0400

Cynics call it “Bubble 2.0”, others call it “Web 2.0”, and everyone is full of opinions. Caterina Fake says it’s a bad time to start a company, many others disagree. For better or worse, Handwire is running a company right now, and, at the least, we’re inspired by what Kathy Sierra calls management 2.0.

Before this movement grew a label, the founding partners of Handwire started a company that already had what are now considered the right ingredients for success. It was a small company from the start and remains that way by choice. The team was built based on shared passions, curiosity and the desire to innovate rather than “x years of experience in x technology”. Through it all, the secretive and dictatorial atmosphere that Sierra labels so 1.0 has never really taken hold around here.

My favorite quote from the comments of Sierra’s post:

A resume itself is kind of 1.0ish… in a 2.0 world, you don’t list your accomplishments – the hiring team knows about you because they’ve seen your work on the web. They know you have technical chops not because they’ve grilled you on pointers in an interview, but because they’ve collaborated with you on an open source project. They know about your speaking and communication skills because they saw your demo at a User Group, or your talk at a conference. They don’t rely on references they’ve never met – they could be your references.

I like this idea, though I’m not sure how scalable it is. (If all of a sudden one day everyone up and decides to start collaborating on Open Source projects and speaking at conferences, most people would still only know of a select few by reputation.) Still, the idea behind it is a clear improvement on the way people both establish and evaluate professional experience. Wouldn’t you rather hire some one who you’re familiar with by reputation than based on their own claims about their skills? It’s a better situation for companies, individuals and clients. Why clients? Because they’ll have a much better experience if it’s delivered by happy, passionate individuals.

Handwriting: Tag gettingreal

Modern Management